Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
tikilyn

Getting ready to sale. Have a Realtor question.

tikilyn
11 years ago

My husband and I are wanting to list our house this spring. Right now I am trying to get the house decluttered, deep clean and repainted. It's a slow process because I'm pretty much doing it on my own, while my husband works (10 hr shifts that rotate). He wants to go ahead and contact a few realtors to see what they will say and how much we should list for but I think we should have the house ready.

Is it a good idea to go ahead and contact realtors now or should we get everything done first?

Thanks

Comments (8)

  • terezosa / terriks
    11 years ago

    Go ahead and contact an agent (or two or three) now. They will give you tips on what needs to be done, and what doesn't.

    This post was edited by terriks on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 22:30

  • C Marlin
    11 years ago

    My answer is the opposite, do your cleanup and painting.
    You know you need that, then contact agents to see their individual suggestions.

  • kirkhall
    11 years ago

    I'd contact now. People are starting to look for houses. If there are some agents who know you are coming on the market soon, and your house is perfect for their buyer, they might "sell" it before it makes it to the MLS (rare, but happens).

    Also, you might be surprised with what your house is/isn't worth, and it would be good to know that ahead of tons of work if you can't move like you thought you wanted to.

  • weedyacres
    11 years ago

    Others have listed some of the pros and cons of now vs. later. I lean towards later, because otherwise they'll mainly tell you what you already know to do. I'd prefer they tell me the additional things to do after I've done the big ones I know about. One realtor who came through actually found a small ding of wall paint on a ceiling. :-)

    In either case, I would recommend that you start doing due diligence on potential agents now. Watch their listings, see how quickly they sell, gauge how good their pricing is (are all their listings continually dropping price?), go to open houses to see how well they show their listings.

    Don't just randomly pick someone and go with them. Do a lot of up-front work to narrow down to a few that you're impressed with, and ask them the hard questions about how they will sell YOUR home.

  • tikilyn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you everyone! I think I'm going to wait a week or two just to get things in order here first. I'm going to be one busy lady. We have so out grown this house and only after 8 years here.

  • kellienoelle
    11 years ago

    "I'd contact now. People are starting to look for houses. If there are some agents who know you are coming on the market soon, and your house is perfect for their buyer, they might "sell" it before it makes it to the MLS (rare, but happens)."

    This is exactly what happened with my house. I was planning on listing in about a month, but was in process of doing some staging while waiting for a couple of things. The fact that I didn't have to deal with showings was such a relief. We had the real estate agents come out a month or two before we were listing to offer pricing ideas, review comps, marketing ideas, etc. I also asked about what would need to be done to get the house ready to be put on the market. Initially I had an additional list of things that I thought may be needed to update. The real estate agent we selected just said, it looks fine, don't waste your time, just do some basic decluttering. Some things in my house are great, some are more dated, but it is 20+ years old, so it would be expected that some parts would be showing some age. In the end it was clean and well maintained, but not perfect. The realtors see what else is out there every day, so will have good input into what is REALLY important, and what will set you apart from the competition.

    Another piece of advice, I posted here for staging help, and got a ton of helpful input. I would recommend doing the same.

  • jane__ny
    11 years ago

    We sold our house in 2011 and I met with Realtors before doing work on it. I wanted to see their comps and get an idea about pricing to better gauge how much work to put into the house.

    It was very helpful and the Realtor I choose helped me stage the house. She was very much a part of what we did to the place, - paint colors, decluttering, basically staging the rooms to present the house to the most potential. We wanted to sell fast and had newer homes as competition.

    We listed in June and accepted an offer in August. Except for a long closing (buyers were relocating), everything went smoothly.

    Having our Realtor as a partner from the beginning, made the difference.

    Jane

  • kirkhall
    11 years ago

    @Jane,
    Your note reads almost like a testimonial! How nice of you to appreciate your REA so much. Have you said the same things to her?